1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices for holding bags, and more particularly, to devices used to hold a bag while filling it with sand or other material.
2. General Background
Sandbags are often the only flood control method available to reinforce or raise the height of dikes, berms, or levees used to protect property from flood water damage. The typical method used to fill sandbags is that one person holds the sandbag while a second person shovels sand or other granular material into the bag. When the bag is filled and the open end of the bag closed, the sandbag is ready for use. This method requires two people to fill a single sandbag at a time when there are generally insufficient personnel available to complete the work required to prevent or minimize flood damage. Additionally, as much as fifty percent of the sand thrown at a sandbag misses the bag, and falls back to the ground. The sand that misses the bag results in wasted effort. Thus, it takes a longer period of time to fill a sandbag and more energy is expended per sandbag. Consequently, fewer sandbags are filled in a given time period.
The prior art also provides portable methods and devices for filling sandbags. Two fairly recent examples of the prior art are U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,350 which issued on Mar. 18, 1986 to Bond, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,085 which issued on Mar. 14, 1995 to Spagnolo.
Bond illustrates a bag holder that attempts to address the above problems. The ability to hold two bags, one next to the other, or four in a cross shaped arrangement will somewhat reduce the quantity of sand that misses a bag. This arrangement, however, has only one side of each bag in common with other bags in the holder. Thus, even with this arrangement approximately thirty percent of the sand will miss one of the bags. The use of a single vertical support, may be acceptable for applications where the portable bag filling stand can be placed on a level surface. However, this system, it is believed, will experience reduced stability in actual field conditions where the stand will be placed on uneven surfaces and supporting sandbags weighing different amounts.
Spagnolo attempts to address the wasted effort caused by sand missing the bag by using a "fill chute" to direct approximately fifty percent of this sand into the bag. This bag holder, however, does not appear to be particularly stable on uneven ground. The lack of stability would be most noticeable when the sandbag is empty and/or the person filling the sandbag is shoveling heavy wet sand.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a sandbag filling stand which requires only one person to use, maximizes the amount of sand going into the bags, is easily stored, quickly assembled, sturdy enough for field use, and stable when used on uneven surfaces.